Loyle Carner has announced brand new album hopefully !, which is set for release on Island EMI on June 20th. Loyle has additionally detailed plans for a huge global tour to follow his Glastonbury headline set (The Other Stage, June 27th), including 3Arena on Sunday, 9 Novemebr 2025 and a four night residency at London’s O2 Academy Brixton in November. Pre-order hopefully ! for live access now: album pre-sale opens on April 30th at 9AM local time, MCD, Live Nation and SJM pre-sale on May 1st (9AM), Spotify pre-sale beginning on May 1st (12PM), and tickets available for general sale on May 2nd (9AM).
hopefully ! was introduced recently alongside two surprise new songs, ‘all i need / in my mind’, marking the groundbreaking British artist as you’ve never seen or heard him before. A life-affirming exploration of fatherhood, childhood and alternative music, the album is buoyed by a positivity and lightness of touch achieved in large part by stepping out of your comfort zone. In a series of firsts - singing, producing, accidentally forming the band of his dreams - Loyle Carner cultivates healthier boundaries, whilst also allowing his audience in (the album’s moving artwork features his muse of a son, who can also be heard throughout the record).
A musician, writer, director, producer, entrepreneur and actor, Loyle Carner first emerged with 2013’s A Little Late EP, and has since forged a signature blend of unflinching, diaristic lyricism with ambitious, genre-disruptive sounds. His debut album, 2017’s Yesterday’s Gone, untangled personal experiences of grief, and the pressures of coming-of-age; 2019 follow-up, Not Waving, but Drowning, further showcased Loyle’s ability to set lithe rap against old-soul wisdom. A cathartic turning point proved to be 2022’s hugo: a taut, textured exploration of Black identity and anger, which also secured his second Top 3 album. Having been twice shortlisted for the Mercury Prize - and scored further BRIT and NME Award nominations - Carner has earned an impassioned worldwide following, with 1.1B streams, campaigns with global brands (YSL, New Balance, Nike) and sold-out shows including Alexandra Palace, Wembley Arena, Eventim Apollo, O2 Academy Brixton and Royal Albert Hall in his beloved London hometown alone. This journey climaxed in a headline appearance at All Points East’s 35,000 capacity Victoria Park last summer, which hopefully ! emerged in the wake of.
Sunlight streaming through the window, hopefully ! signals a new era in which Loyle Carner continues to push the boundaries of his art (and himself). A passionate advocate around his experiences of dyslexia and ADHD - notably founding the Chilli Con Carner cookery workshops - last year he received an honourary doctorate from UAL in recognition of his powerful rise thus far. He was also recently confirmed to make his acting debut in Mint, a BBC drama from BAFTA-nominated Scrapper director Charlotte Regan, with further exciting visual projects to follow. In an always-unpredictable career, Loyle Carner’s work has remained as affectingly personal as it is uplifting and universal. Now a decade in, his impact has never been clearer: the same local hero, now rightly regarded as one of the UK’s most vital voices.
